They take your money and won't call you back

I called Embrace Home Loans about a mortgage after receiving an offer in the mail. After I called, they immediately charged me $375.00 for a mortgage appraisal. I have tried to get them to return my phone call now for over 2 months with no avail. I believe thay have scammed me for the $375.00... I have also called and left messages with my account managers, manager with the same results. Today I called and asked to talk to the President David Noyce. They wouldn't transfer my call, making me wonder if the individual even exists. I received a response back from them today through my complaint with the BBB. They still will not answer my call, goes to voice mail, and will not return call. This company is bogus. Stay clear of them, Do not give them your credit card information. SCAM...

Comments

We have a mortgage with embrace and for some reason our payment never makes it there ontime unless we spend another $12 on a phone payment. All other payments we send they said they never received, even they where send 12 day's before the due date. I'm so tired of this company
Petra Smith

c'mon now, you know thats not what happened. They cannot charge you a penny until you agree to it in writing or until you go thru a minimum or 3 electronic steps to give your permission. Then Im sure that an appraiser showed up a couple days later. There is your $375 fee. Mortgage companies cannot keep even one penny of your $375 by law, so your complaint holds zero merit. Im guessing that your home didnt appraise high enough to get the loan you wanted. That is noones fault but the economy.

I don't know anything about this company, but if they are going to do an appraisal, they should be able to give you an indication whether loan approval is likely or not. You know approximately how much equity you have in the house. With that knowledge, they can say how much they'll loan you, and the appraisal should just be a formality. It may be safer and cheaper to talk to a local banker in your town, for a HELOC (home equity line of credit).

I am currently working with Embrace Home Loans and the day before closing they claim the appraisal came back too low. However, the loan officer says he received the appraisal 10 days ago but ask the seller to increase the price but knowing the appraisal came back too low. Now my kids and I are about to be homeless because the home I'm has already been rented and I have never been in a situation like this before. There is no communication from them. All contact has been initiated by me. So my question is who is going to pay for me and my kids to have a place to live?

Just talked to a representative with Embrace Home Loans (I've been receiving and shredding their mailers for the last 2+ years, but decided to give them a call), and I'm extremely impressed with this particular representative's professionalism and ability to communicate exactly what Embrace can and cannot do for me in regards to refinancing my subprime loan. Also, I checked with BBB, and they have an "A+" rating. Overall, I would do business with them. Nevertheless, I too am skeptical about the $375 appraisal fee; yet, I do realize it's required to get the true value of my home (Zillow and exisiting comps just won't cut it). As long as they provide me the name of the third party appraisal, name of the person who will be doing the appraisal, and their contact information, I don't have a problem paying for this service. I think we all need to be realistic in terms of what these financial companies can do for us in crunch financial times that we're surviving in these days. We can't expect miracles; I would rather receive the truth: that I'll have to pay towards my negative equity or wait until equity is restored in my home before I can qualify for any new loan product!

I was charged the $375. up front for appraisal. It came back even lower than my assessment value, so Embrace lowered the loan amount but still charged all the same fees. Still waiting to hear from BBB.

I applied for a loan with Embrace, but didn't do all the paper work to process it. My credit score is low due to some unfortunate times I have had, but was working to get debts paid off and spring back from some tough times. At the beginning of the process we knew right off I would not qualify, but my rep called me back about 2 months later and told me "You are doing really good, you need to do this and this and this and we should be good to go". After doing the things she suggested, she lead me to believe I would get the loan, but there were a few things bothering me - 1st. She asked for money for the appraisal ($375.00) I went for it, took a day off of work to be at the appraisal, but the company that was to do it cancelled on me. 2nd I was told I had to put my Student Loan into the loan and wrap it all together since that is required for a FHA loan..well my student loan is only 2.85 interest, and after finding all these little things that didn't seem right I decided not to move forward. My home is already more than 80% paid off-my Student Loan is 20 years from being paid off. As I was talking with the representative, I became more and more suspicious. I was told I didn't qualify anyhow because my house is on commercial/Agricultural land (I live in the country)-should they not have known that upfront? In short, I then recieved a letter a dated the same day I told them I didn't want to go forward that my credit was too low. OK so I have email confirming that a reimbursement would be made to me in two weeks - two weeks has passed and I can't get anyone to tell me where it is. I will give them this week, then I will be filing a complaint - it's $375 for an appraisal they failed to do on the day THEY scheduled - they took money for a service they did not provide (I didn't cancel it they did) so there should be no reason for my not getting it especially since they told me they would return it. PLEASE DON'T USE THEM. I am going to go to BBB and file an official complaint this week if I don't hear from them. I knew my instincts were right. Please beware of them. They appear to prey on people that need a helping hand who coming off a bad time.

At first you will be called back promptly, after the appraisel company comes out, and you are told that as a federal law they can't have any contact with appraisel company it has to go through a third party. Which means they can't answer any questions it is left up to appraiser. I have done some research, and the appraiser is from another area, When I inquired how many homes he had appraised in this area, I did not recieve a callback. The appraisel came in $30, 000 less than tax estimate for property. It was laughable, the same company that was so eager to help me out, that returned every call so promptly, know will not even return my calls are emails. I wrote a long email and sent it to REP, his boss, that I wanted to appeal this appraisel, and wanted to see how many appraisel's this guy has done in my area still over a month no response. I feel as though this is just a way to bring in a quick $375 and if they pay the appraiser $50 to $75 dollars for 20 minutes worth of work they still come out pretty good.

************* I will make it my mission to keep this company from preying on people in my area. I have learned a $375 dollar lesson I will make sure that everyone on facebook, myspace any any other social media hot spot will be ware of there business practices, and if they change there name> I will make sure there other baggage goes with them.

I agree with all the posted complaints. Embrace is just one big ripoff. They take your $375.00 and do not keep in contact with you. Once my appraisal came back the loan specialist did not contact me to say he had received it and the appraisal came back less then expected. Embrace must only approve loans for the rich and not the middle class people.

Your welcome, I will be flooding my story to everyone./...I will not rest until everyone is aware of there business practices, I have already been contacted by several people on facebook that were getting ready to work with EMBRACE to refinance there homes. They should change there name to BRACE YOURSELF...The facts are the facts any one that his an appraisel...if you have any foreclosures within 5 miles of your home in the last year, which do to a bad economy would be everyone in America they will use that as the reason for the low ball appraisel, and hope you are to embarrased to tell your story...guess what, , , If my story will keep anyone else from throwing away there hard earned money ...then it is my responsibility as a human being to do so...good luck to you all...and remember there are good companies out there use local companies if possible.

check it out people. the law states that mortgage loan officers cannot tell the appraiser ANYTHING. They are not allowed to change the value of your home.

the government is to blame... not this little mortgage shop. Do your home work before you diss them. The only thing these people did worng was not call you back (which is BAD) but you wouldnt have gotten the loan anyways. deal with it!

Sour Grapes are hard to dispose of. youRnuts is correct in regards to the HVCC guidelines. I work for a title company and hear this type of complaining all the time. A mortgage loan officer (MLO) is the bottom man on the sales totem pole. They only get paid when loan close (unless they work for a bank.. then they get paid salary regradless). Why would they want to purposely deny a loan. This silliness and sour grapes complex comes from not doing your homework before applying for a loan.

My husband is an MLO and I am making it my goal to make ill informed people aware. Complaining without merit is like slander. do your homework before blaming someone for not qualifying for a loan.

My name is the SourGrapeSlayer. check out my blog on a wives guide to doing the homeowork your husband refuses to do. do not blame someone else for knowledge you chose not to explore before handing out your credit card information to a stranger.

I would like to know how many of us there is in Iowa and Embrace used an appraiser from Waterloo. (Star Perfomers) They are stars alright. A star in making your appraisal lower than your assessed value. Telling me I have to remove my tractor. Come on now. I live on an acreage. Just because it needs a paint job don't mean it doesn't run and that we don't use it. Who is he to say I can't have a tractor or a burn pile of brush.

The funniest part about this whole thread of complaints is that through my experiance almost all houses are appraising low. I know 10 people that just bought houses and they all came back lower then the asking price. Its just the market. If you pay to have 10 of your own appraisers come and appraise your house I am sure you will see what I am talking about. It sucks that you had to pay a fee to find out your house didnt appraise high enough. But if you went to your own bank down the street from your house you might of had the same results. They would of also charged a fee. I am sure Embrace couldnt stay in business for as long as they have by just collecting $375 fees all day long. But if you want to apply for a mortgage and you are subprime or have a low credit score look into phh mortgage. They are great and easy to deal with.
p.s. If you look online all mortgage companies have complaints about them. As a matter of fact almost all companies period have complaints about them. Dont waste your time and energy on making sure everyone knows about your experiance. In the long run you will see it is just a waste of time. Instead focus on something positive in life and you will be much happier.

Well one good thing, Wells Fargo are submitting a dispute on the charge as my loan login is now not available and so I do not have a copy of the appraisal which I paid for. Lets see Embrace Home Loans get out of that one. I either want the appraisal or my money back, and I think Wells Fargo have a bit more clout.

We have been getting these papers in the mail for 2 -3 years, I keep seeing something where they charge you $375.00 for appraisal, You don't see a thing about this in the book they send you, Now I am afraid to fool with them, I would rather go to my bank and get the money to do what I want to do.thank you all for sharing your stories, sure help me out.
joy!!!